Employer Sponsored Training

Solutions Cube Group courses enable students to close the gap between project management theory (knowing what they should be doing on projects) and having tools and techniques for applying the theory (how to actually do it). Every course is designed as an experiential learning opportunity to present the student with project management theory coupled with time tested techniques for implementing the theory.

On Site, Employer sponsored courses allow companies to place multiple students into privately held courses at facilities they choose and which can be customized to meet the learning needs of their employees.

Our instruction methodology focuses on helping students learn how to effectively lead project team members through the collaborative creation of project deliverables. Each course experience enables students to learn the material from 3 key learning perspectives.

First perspective: students learn and understand the project management theory

Second perspective: students participate in activities, expertly led by the instructor, to build project deliverables related to the theory they have learned

Third perspective: students apply their newly acquired knowledge as they lead the other students through the collaborative creation of the project deliverables

Students leave every course with a better understanding of the project management best practices and the tools and techniques for implementing these practices on their own projects.

Employer Sponsored Training Courses

Employers can schedule private skill building courses to close the gap between project management theory and the tools and techniques for applying the theory.

For many people, meetings are viewed as a dreaded evil – far too little gets accomplished and a lot of time is wasted. Yet, for some, 50-75% of their work week is spent in meetings that are unproductive, not needed or fail to produce results.

Purpose

Teach your staff how to improve the quality and productivity of every meeting they conduct

Learning Objectives:

Learn how to distinguish between multiple meeting types and determine when it is appropriate to use each type

Be able to create Agendas as part of planning and preparing for meeting success

Be able to demonstrate effective meeting kick-off, attending management and meeting closing techniques

Learn how to overcome and manage multiple disruptive attendee behaviors that are present in most meetings

In response to strong pressure to quickly implement a project solution, project teams often jump into defining their requirements (or more often solutions) without clarifying the scope of their project. Project Managers are then likely to face what appears to be rampant scope creep.

Consequently, without formally documenting the scope of the project, there is no mechanism in place to enable them to differentiate between true project boundaries and perceived scope creep.

Purpose

Teach students how to create a Project Scope Statement which will:

Clarify the boundaries of a project,

Distinguish between business and project objectives

Differentiate between processes that will be changed and entities that will be interfaced with

Clarify the project limitations

Clarify the key project success factors

Document the assumptions related to decisions outside the control of the project team

Learning Objectives:

Be able to describe the 5 components of a project Scope Statement

Learn how to use the Scope Statement differentiate between requirements and related project work that is in scope versus out of scope

Be able to identify the Business Objectives which justify the project

Be able to clarify the boundaries dictated by the Project Objectives

Be able to build a Context Diagram to depict Business Processes and External Entities

Be able to support scope management decisions based on Constraints, Critical Success Factors and Assumptions the project is operating under

On many projects, the requirements definition process falls short of defining the “real” business need for the project. Solutions, which may appear to be great for the project on the surface, are often developed without any tie to the underlying project needs.

The discovery of missing, out of scope, or poorly defined project needs often occurs after a project solution has been designed or developed.

Attempting to satisfy these late discovered gaps in project needs, leads to project failure in the form of cost and schedule overruns or solutions which are missing intended functionality.

Purpose

Teach students how to develop a complete clear set of project requirements which are based on customer needs (Business Requirements – What’s) and drive appropriate solutions (Technical Requirements – How’s) to deliver the needs.

Learning Objectives:

Be able to use the Project Scope Statement to guide the creation of “real” project needs delivered by appropriate project solutions

Learn how to leverage collaborative techniques to lead team members through definition of project Business Requirements

Learn how to transform requirements stated as solutions into requirements stated as business needs

Be able establish traceability between the Business Requirements and the Technical Requirements

Projects are initiated to introduce change in an organization and as a result of this change, all projects operate under an element of risk related to uncertainty which, if the uncertainty occurs, will either add to or detract from the overall results of the project. Although many project teams engage in risk management activities, they often fail to understand the full scope of risks which should be managed or treat risk management as a mitigation activity for negative risks.

Purpose

Learn how to correctly build a Risk Management Plan which clarifies the appropriate risk response for the most impactful project risks which might occur

Many Strategic Plans are created each year after spending weeks or months of activity to produce a detailed book of strategies which then sit on the shelf or rarely get looked at for the next 12 months.

A Strategic Plan should not be a onetime annual endeavor. Instead, the Strategic Plan must be a living evolving road map which adapts to the changes in environment and drives decision makers’ actions as they introduce change to achieve the organization’s vision.

Purpose

Prepares students to participate in activities to develop a “living” Strategic Plan for their organization which will be shared with and understood by the employees as a guide to their ongoing actions, projects and initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

Be able to assess the current state of the organization before sponsoring projects to change it

Be able to differentiate between why the Organization exists and what it should look like 3 – 5 years from now

Be able to develop broad Objectives and specific measurable Goals for promoting change

Learn how to expand Goals into Action Plans

Learn techniques for monitoring and adjusting the Strategic Plan throughout the year to ensure it reflects the changes that continually occur

Creating the project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is frequently a misunderstood and overwhelming project activity. Project teams confuse the WBS with the Project Schedule.

While there is a relationship between the WBS and the Project Schedule, they are not interchangeable project deliverables and both must be created when planning the project effort.

Purpose

Teach students the differences between a project’s Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Project Schedule

Learn techniques for creating a comprehensive deliverables based WBS to communicate the full scope of work outcomes which fall within the boundaries of the project and to substantiate the need for every activity included in the project’s schedule.

Learning Objectives:

Be able to describe the characteristics of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and be able to communicate how it differs from and supports the Project Schedule

Learn progressive elaboration techniques for uncovering and documenting all of the deliverables that fall within the scope of the project

Be able to decompose the WBS components to lowest level of detail needed define activities and plan and manage the project work

Learn how to apply the 100% rule to verify that the WBS is complete and represents the full scope of the project

Process Models provide a visual mechanism to clarify and communicate the flow of work that is performed or should be performed in an organization. Often times, perceptions are misaligned among team members for the purpose and needs of processes that are about to be changed on a project.

When team members set out to document processes for a project effort, they frequently dive into the detailed physical aspects of the processes (i.e., how work is done) before reaching agreement what conceptual processes should exist (what work should be done).

Purpose:

Teach students the concepts and techniques for developing a Process Model which starts with a logical view of the desired work flow processes which must be put in place to support process improvement requirements and physical solutions to achieve desired changes in an organization.

Learning Objectives

Be to distinguish between the Logical and a Physical process models

Develop techniques for documenting “What” flows make up an end to end process of work

Learn decomposition modeling techniques to depict the full scope of work starting with the highest conceptual level down to the lowest granular level of detail

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Testimonials

The Solutions Cube Group facilitation team did a GREAT job, kept us moving and focused. <<Applause.>>

Technical Project Manager

Solutions Cube Group

The Solutions Cube Group facilitation team did a GREAT job, kept us moving and focused. <<Applause.>>

Technical Project Manager

Solutions Cube Group

... the facilitation team did an outstanding job leading our BRD sessions. The product that we ended up with is of much higher quality than the typical BRD fare that we see in our company. It is certainly going to make my job of creating an architecture approach easier!

Product Architecture Lead

Solutions Cube Group

Thank you for leading the business requirements effort very effectively over the course of three weeks! It has helped us develop robust set of process maps and uncover some requirements that we may potentially have otherwise overlooked in the requirements phase.

Business Analyst

Solutions Cube Group

You conducted the facilitated sessions well and in an organized manner. The meeting scribe’s skill with MS Word, Excel and Visio and real time management of 10+ meeting deliverables was excellent.

Product Owner

Banking Industry

Solutions Cube Group

I like that we get to discuss everything and clearly lay issues out in the open for everyone to discuss. I also like the fact that all of the meeting documents are viewable during the meeting and available immediately after the meeting so that we can have our working documents to move with the project work.

Compliance Analyst

Credit Card Industry

Solutions Cube Group

… the meeting facilitation keeps the requirements definition process organized, documented and on-track. We got a lot accomplished in 4 days, finishing work that would normally take us more than a month to complete!!

Business Analyst

Solutions Cube Group

I think this facilitated meeting was very useful. As a developer, in this meeting, we were able to extract from the User their vision of what the system should feel and look like. This is very important as it gives us the context of what we need to change in the current system.

Development Lead

Banking Industry

Solutions Cube Group

The meeting process allowed us to be able to link the user’s requirements to actual in production screens to clarify the changes they are asking for. This is often a significant challenge for us and a welcomed outcome of the meeting.

Design Team Member

Solutions Cube Group

The session was great in terms of outlining the high level objectives of the project first and then drill down to requirements. It created an environment where participants were encouraged to discuss business needs (requirements) instead of focusing on solutions

Business Analyst

Solutions Cube Group

…the way the facilitator and the meeting scribe were totally in sync. The facilitator wouldn't even have to talk sometimes and the scribe would already be on the right document making the changes he wanted to see. They kept things moving and focused...

Project Manager

Banking Industry

Solutions Cube Group

Thank you so much for the explanation and for presenting the overview. I thought that you did an outstanding job and I will most likely attend other webinars that Solutions Cube Group offers.